The present invention relates to metamaterials, and more specifically to acoustic metamaterials.
Most current damping materials consist of foams and adhesives with certain damping characteristics. Newer damping materials include acoustic metamaterials, which are man-made materials that can have superior vibro-acoustic characteristics. One example of an existing acoustic metamaterial is a one-dimensional ultrasonic metamaterial which acts as an array of Helmholtz resonators, and has a band gap near its resonance.
However, existing acoustic metamaterials are unable to handle a wide range of vibro-acoustic loads. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide improved acoustic metamaterials that handle a wider range of vibro-acoustic loads and that can be used in a wider variety of applications.